July 02, 2021
By Game & Fish Staff
Little-known fact: Senko-style lures were fashioned after the profile of an ink pen. But that’s probably not why the soft-plastic stick bait is so effective at catching bass.
Actually, it’s a bit difficult to pin down just what makes the popular lure style such a bass magnet, no matter how an angler rigs it.
"I still don't know what a Senko imitates," Crash Course video host Shane Beilue says in "3 Ways to Rig a Senko," "But the fact is it catches bass."
The soft stick bait offers simplicity and versatility in a bass lure, lending itself to effective rigging.
In the Crash Course video, Beilue gives an overview of three effective rigs for Senko-style bass lures: Texas, Wacky and Neko.
Texas rigs, with a slip sinker and worm hook (3/0 or 4/0 are good choices), can be fished shallow or deep, and its weedless design makes it effective around bass-populated heavy cover.
Wacky and Neko rigs, with the hook situated at the midpoint of the soft-plastic lure, are similar in their lift-and-drop presentations, but differ in their best applications.
Wacky rigs work well in shallow water, less than five feet, especially around rocks and stickups. The lure slowly falls with each end quivering during the decent.
Neko rigs, with a nail weight in one end, falls nose down and is effective for finesse presentations along the bottom. The deeper the nail weight, the deeper it can be fished.
Bites are typically subtle with wacky and Neko rigs.
